Vegetable Biryani

Vegetable Biryani is one of my favourite dishes to make. Its so quick and you can use the same masaala you would use for a meat biryani. Here is my recipe:
2 1/2 cups boiled long grain rice
1/4 cup for the bottom of the pot
1 cup for white rice over the masaala rice
1 1/4 cup rice to mix with masaala to make masaala rice
1/4 to 1/2 cup masoor (brown lentils) depending on how much you like in your biryani

Vegetables:
1 red onion cut into chunks
5 baby marrows, halved then quartered
3carrots, quartered lenthways then halved
8 mushrooms, quartered
5 baby corn, halved in to two peices
1 green pepper and red pepper, cut into chunks
1/2 cup green beans cut into chunks
2 potatoes, quartered and boiled till almost done
1/4 tsp of saffron, mixed into 1/8th cup boiling water
Method:
Mix the vegetables with biryani masaala.
Start to layer the biryani first with the 1/4 cup rice at the bottom of a wide pot. Throw the vegetables over once mixed with the masaala. Try to dust off as much of the masaala as you can before layering them over the rice. Mix the extra masaala together with the brown lentils into the extra rice. Layer this over the vegetables.
Layer the last cup of rice on the top. Sprinkle over the saffron water. Stick 2 long peices of cinnamon into the rice. Steam and serve.

This makes a refreshing alternative to the regular meat biryani. Serve with a garden salad and fat free yoghurt.